Trying to become pregnant

The “reds”

To Minnie s generation the pill was commonplace. She took it for many years – at first to try to deal with her hormonal mood swings which were bleak at particular times of the cycle. Later, as a contraceptive – one of many.

Minnie was casual in the way she used to take the pill, sometimes doubling a dose; other times, adding alcohol to try to dull her increasingly ferocious “blues”. Period pain was often intense. Minnie missed school several months in a row due to severe cramps and diarrhoea. Unfortunately, there was little sympathy at this time. Instead, the message was stop whinging and get on with it.

It was not until she was in her thirties that doctors discovered endometrial scar tissue, revealing that Minnie was most likely fighting more than “the menstrual blues” during her narrow, reproductive window of opportunity.